With 'LOTR' behind him, Andy Serkis is 'evangelical' about motion capture

Speaking with The Times, Andy Serkis said he’s dialed back how hard he tries to explain performance-capture acting to skeptics. The technology is still “very misunderstood,” he noted, but after years of evangelizing, he’s no longer burning energy trying to convert every doubter.

“I used to be evangelical. I’ve talked for hours about how performance capture is acting and watched eyes glaze over, but life’s too short. I calmed down. Now I just think, ‘If you get it? Great,’” he told the paper.

Serkis also drew a line between his Gollum work and classic transformations achieved with prosthetics, pointing to the team that helped John Hurt create The Elephant Man. He questioned why audiences readily credit the human performance under a physical mask but hesitate to extend that same recognition when the “mask” is digital.

Back to Middle-earth

Even if he’s less vocal about it, Serkis is still using the tools. He’ll reprise Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum—and direct the film as well. The project is still in the works, and Serkis said performance capture will be used whenever a scene calls for it.

Casting is taking shape around him, with familiar names circling. According to reports, the conversation has included potential returns and new faces:

• Ian McKellen — reportedly expected to return
• Elijah Wood — reportedly expected to return
• Jamie Dornan — reportedly in the mix

The long mocap campaign

Serkis has been the face of this tech for two decades, from Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy to Kong in King Kong. He’s spent years making the case that performance capture preserves every choice an actor makes—it just gets translated through a digital character.

These days, he says he’s content to let the work speak for itself. As for the new movie, it remains in development, with Serkis set to step in front of and behind the camera as Gollum whenever the story demands it.